Knicks Starters Beat Our Reserves

The Knicks beat the Celtics tonight, 108-103 in the second to last game of the preseason. The Knicks wanted this win and played like it. Their starters played the entire 4th quarter. Doc Rivers used his second unit for nearly all of the final quarter and they almost pulled off the win.

I was not impressed with the C's defense. The regular rotation allowed 89 points through 3 quarters. Considering none of the starters will play tomorrow night, I wanted to see regular season defensive intensity in this game. It was not there.

We saw another solid performance by Kevin Garnett – 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks in 23 minutes. He had a couple of sweet dunks (including the one alley-oop in the video clip above).Marquis Daniels (17 points, 7-11 FG) played his best game. He consistently took advantage of mismatches by bringing the ball into the paint and shooting over smaller guards.

Rajon Rondo (20 points, 9-14 FG, 7 assists) was penetrating at will through the Knicks defense. Did I just type Knicks and defense in the same sentence? Shame on me.

Great dunk but damn, the C’s clearly had an off night…
The last minutes of the game was just beyond painful to watch, they just let the game slip right out of their fingers. If it was the first unit playing, we would have won, but oh well, it’s preseason, but still, bad loss.
And lucky night for the Knicks, they made more than 10+ threes… and they suck at taking three’s. xD What a miracle.

Nora

Well, if they are going to have an off night it is best to have them in the pre season

http://profile.typepad.com/6p01156f6a54c2970c ToTheRuins

Our starters played plenty, and when they were in there they werent exactly blowing the knicks out…titles a bit misleading…. Loved seeing Maria Menounos do an interview with Greg haha

Nora

Games are won and lost in the 4th quarter. Their starters played the whole quarter. They obviously wanted to win this meaningless pre season game. They got their wish.

Jason

Definitely glad to finally see the real Marquis. That was vintage. He’s so casual through a move, at his own pace (even more so than Pierce), and still gets it done. He went quick to get past Gallinari. He took his time posting up smaller players. He picked his way into the lane, kind of chilled, then continued to the rim. It was really impressive. I hadn’t seen that so far and was actually getting worried he wasn’t doing what he’s known for doing. Glad to see it.

Jason

As for KG, there’s plenty to be pleased about, but I still don’t see him fully 100% back, maybe only 90-95%. Yes, he embarrassed Harrington (though he was really that high off the ground) and made an oop (that was the real KG) and another lob (why didn’t he have the ups to flush that?) and a dunk in the lane (he is still 7 foot) and he was relatively active on D, but honestly he doesn’t look as explosive as he once was, like he’s lost 6 inches or so on his vertical. He’s not exploding off the ground to take away boards like he used to. He’s not skying from the weakside to reject shots. When he contests drivers he’s not challenging them nearly as high as he used to.
Maybe he’s still working into game shape (he does seem to be breathing pretty hard at points) and that fatigue limits his true explosiveness or perhaps it’s just normal aging. And maybe the knee is fine, but he’s working on re-strengthening it. But there was one cutback to him where maybe it looked like he was favoring the leg. I hope all the “He’s Back!!” declarations aren’t in vain.

Jason

Ugh.
“wasn’t really that high”

Jason

Is that Ray’s normal form? I didn’t think it was. Look at how far out is elbow is. Maybe his mechanics are a little off.

Jason

Just re-watched the real good alley-oop and realized he took off with his good (left) knee, which tells us nothing at all about how good his right knee is. Then again, even in this play he’s still not springing off the court like he used to. Hopefully, it’s just conditioning and not 40,000 career minutes starting to really catch up with him.
For the record, I’m not trying to doom and gloom here, because even if we’re only going to get 95% or 90% of the KG we know, that’s still an All-NBA player and will be more than enough to help claim #18.

Double P Reppin the B

I agree, I do like what I am seeing from him but I have realized he has lost a lot on his vertical. The guy can’t get up as high as he used to and I just hope we don’t see that really start to affect his game. He is still a stud, but older, and seemingly less athletic than we are used too.

http://profile.typepad.com/redsarmy Red’s Army

good comparison between Quis and Pierce. Both are noticeably good at using their body to get to the rim. Just the way they turn and twist and slide into position.

http://profile.typepad.com/6p01156f6a54c2970c ToTheRuins

it suddenly becomes meaningless when we lose? i mean I just dont get it, the celtics starters and main 3 bench guys played the majority of the minutes, the celtics starters never got a big lead on the knicks starters, it was mano a mano…not to mention our reserves should be able to beat their starters…jus wasnt happening…the defense was embarrasing

http://profile.typepad.com/6p01156f6a54c2970c ToTheRuins

KG looks good, but he doesnt look like he did before the injury or anything…I guess some people are just blind to the fact that he, runs and jumps completly different now

Nora

It is a preseason game! Seems pretty meaningless to me. What is there to ‘get’?

Nora

chill out!

Nora

Who cares as long as KG is scoring?

http://profile.typepad.com/6p01156f6a54c2970c ToTheRuins

When we win in the preseason, people are ready to declare us world beaters, when we lose, and our starters play as many minutes as they have all preseason, people say it doesnt matter and that the knicks starters beat our bench…..the celtics didnt play good last night, especially defensivly…dont act as if though they didnt go out there to win, preseason or not